Our Week :: May 11-18

Meghan is way into imaginative play! She continues to love to cook and bake....this day I found her on the floor with her plates and bowls spread around her and she was dividing her food up onto them.

Of course, Mama was offered a bite of what she was cooking!

Our bulk order of toilet paper showed up on our porch. Meghan spent a long time working on opening the box for me. She's already showing a strong work-ethic and a desire to help. These are traits I plan to continue encouraging in her! 

I took this picture of Meghan at play - sometimes she happily plays with just a few toys. But, most of the time the playroom ends up looking something like this! This is why we limit how many toys are out and rotate her toys - I can't imagine cleaning up all of the toys she owns!

More pretending to cook and eat. Look at those beautiful big blue eyes!!! 

Meghan loves the video camera and always wants to have it when it's out. She usually doesn't want to "perform" for the camera either. However, on Tuesday she was willing to show off! Here she is showing off a few of her signs.....

When I play this video for her, she will sign along with herself on the video! She knows many more signs than this, but these were the ones that I thought to ask her.

She also showed off her animal sounds....so cute!! 

On Wednesday morning, this sweet girl and I left for Manhattan to meet her two newest cousins.

We fell in love with these sweet babies! Meghan loved touching their toes. She was generally very nervous about any other touching, but sure seemed to enjoy their toes!

She watched so carefully as Mimsie, Aunt Lauren, and Mama took care of the babies and she took care of her baby doll so well: 

Someone put her in Papa's office chair....she was pretty big stuff! 

Cute Girl 

We got an awesome picture of Grandma and Grandpa with their grand kiddos:

And some big smiles from Meghan: 

After coming back inside, she was very interested in Jase taking his bottle on the porch: 

Meghan had her first brownie while at Mimsie and Papa's house.....she thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Four bites of heaven....she's pretty sure that was what she had just tasted. 

--- Warning: What Follows is the Short Version of Our Miscarriage Story ---

We came home from Manhattan on Friday morning. Friday night, things turned very difficult for our family. Friday night I noticed some spotting while I was going to the bathroom. By Saturday morning it had intensified and I went to the ER. While there they did an ultrasound which revealed that the baby was measuring five days small and still did not have a heartbeat - which would be expected by seven weeks and one day. I was given a list of symptoms to come back if I experienced. By evening the bleeding had intensified and in the morning I felt as though I was having early labor contractions. We returned to the ER where an ultrasound confirmed that, earlier that morning, when I was fairly certain I had seen our baby pass from my body, we had in fact lost the baby and my body was completing the miscarriage process. Blood tests also revealed that I was no longer pregnant, but that my body was managing the miscarriage as well as can be hoped for. We returned home and are now waiting out the rest of the miscarriage process. We are heartbroken and so very sad. That little baby's life was short - but that baby was well loved the entire time. 

We end the week clinging to this verse from Isaiah 25: He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from all faces. 

Baby Hoosier 2 :: 7 Weeks

This week, Baby is the size of a: blueberry
Total weight gain/loss: I don't know and really, I'm not too concerned with keeping track.
Sleep: I've been very tired and struggling to sleep the past few nights - though, the last two I slept in a room with Meghan and she's noisy! (see best moment for more!)
Best moment this week:  We went to Manhattan and got to meet the newest cousins - Jase and Avery! They are so sweet and it was fun to practice all those newborn Mama skills with them. Meghan loved the babies and everyone who was at the house knows with 100% certainty that she knows and understands the word "baby". She was nervous to do much with them, but most definitely enjoyed touching their toes while they sat in their Boppys. She showed no jealousy when I held them at all and I am hopeful that her love of babies, her gentleness with them, and her lack of jealousy will continue when this little nugget joins our family!
Movement: None yet. 
Food cravings: fruit, energy bites, hard boiled eggs, COLD things
Symptoms: Nausea has hit hard this week - still no vomiting though! Very tired. And boy am I breaking out - I feel like I'm back in 7th grade!
Belly Button in or out: in, hopefully for a while!
Milestones: Baby is working on growing arms and legs. As well as the sensory organs - honestly baby is growing so fast and in so many ways each week that it's hard to even keep track! Baby is growing 100 brain cells per minute. The sex glands are forming and facial features are becoming much more recognizable. Baby is looking much more like a small little human being than a tadpole! 

Our Week :: 5/4-5/10 2015

Watch out!! Here come the pictures!!

This was a super busy week for Miss Meghan. She was sick with a good upper respiratory/chest cold for quite a bit of the week. However she was also so sweet and learning so quickly! Check it out!!

Meghan loves playing with her bracelets by the front door. She puts them on, takes them off, lines them up against the door, and generally just has fun!!

I brought up a chair for her table and she LOVED sitting in it. She likes playing at the table while sitting in her chair. She can get into the chair all by herself but cannot get back down alone. She will sit and say all done while signing please to get down!

She has been getting very good at independent play! She has been concentrating on tasks for longer periods of time and really trying to figure things out. These are two things she built in the early week with her Mega Bloks. 

She continues to love dogs. In this picture you can see her lips saying "oof" while she was playing with the dog. 

She tried banana again this week....and still isn't sure that she likes it.

This night was so cute....she and Daddy were both working hard on tasks at her table. With some intermittent peek-a-booing. She is WAY into peek-a-boo these days! She is starting to cover her own face and say "boo!"

She enjoyed crawling around for about 30 minutes beating a plate with a spoon. She makes a wonderful one-woman band. 

Her band took her behind the couch and she was so proud of herself and her "hiding place."

Imaginative play EXPLODED in the last week! She spends so much time pretending to cook. She puts food in pots and pans, mixes, and then brings food to us with a spoon - she extends it to us while saying "mmmmm" until we try whatever she has cooked.

She found her belly button this week!

We went to a garage sale this week where we found this awesome gear toy. Meghan figured out how to make the gears move, to take them off, and put them back on. Way to go motor skills! 

Meghan can eat popcorn without needing us to bite it for her first - she loved sticking her whole hand into the bowl and shoving mouthfuls in just like she see's Daddy do. Her love of "papa" is so cute!! 

I love those curls! And love that this girl knows we just pick things in the garden and eat them....she loved several snap peas on Saturday!

More cooking pictures - apparently this required two spoons! (AND LOOK AT THOSE CURLS! Sweat and humidity really bring them out!!)

Playing peek-a-boo with her pot.

Love this cooked, scrunch-nosed smile!

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy.

She has started pretending to answer phone calls and hand the phone off to other people; apparently this phone call was for Dad!

Her "mommy" play has also been amazing! She carries baby around, puts baby under blankets, feeds baby with a spoon (despite the fact that she doesn't like to be fed off of a spoon), kisses and hugs baby, sings to baby, and has started giving baby bottles. Every time we see a baby she shouts "BABY" and points. Hopefully she will continue to love babies this much when her brother or sister gets here! 

Today she "cooked" three chocolate cupcakes - she's a girl after my own heart!!

I feel like this little girl is just growing up so fast - especially in her play. It's so fun to watch her learn, explore, and imagine. We're just so proud of her!! 

Baby Hoosier 2 :: 6 Weeks

This week, Baby is the size of a: corn kernal
Total weight gain/loss: ??
Sleep: I'm super tired and fall asleep ridiculously early in the evening.
Best moment this week: We got the bed moved out of the nursery and the rocking chair and swing set up - Meghan loves swinging in the swing! We are trying to let her experience the baby things again so that they are less new and exciting when they are being used by the baby. I need to get some pictures of this!
Movement: none yet
Food cravings: pickles, so far not much food stuff at all
Symptoms: Super tired. Nausea has been improving - hopefully that will continue!! 
Belly Button in or out: in - hopefully for a while
Milestones: Baby's heart is starting to beat & his/her mouth, ears, and nose are starting to form!

(There really isn't anything to see in terms of a baby belly yet; but I read a blog where during her second pregnancy she took pictures with her first on a regular basis - it was cool to watch how much he grew and changed while the baby grew. My hope is to do a similar thing with Meghan and this baby. So here we are at 6 weeks pregnant and 14.5 months old!)

Our Week :: 4/27-5/3

Meghan has continued to battle a cold this week. She is also working on gaining two teeth. There was a lot of fussing and trouble sleeping, but sweetness always.... :) 

Miss Meghan has been making a turkey gobbling sound recently which just cracks us up. This was a short clip, but she can go around making the sound for 5-10 minutes straight! 

She's a big fan of drinking out of Mama and Daddy's water bottles. She also has been fairly successful with her attempts to drink out of our open cups!

Whenever she was awake during the early part of the week, she NEEDED to wear her apron that Mimsie made for her. It was so cute to watch her crawl around and "cook" in it. 

Imaginative play has been increasing so quickly around here! This day she was filling up the gas tank in her lawn mower and mowing the carpet. While our mower is electric, she seems to have figured out that you "pour" liquid into the hole.

This smile - I love it! She was sweaty and snotty after playing outside while Mama mowed - but cute none-the-less! 

She LOVES socks. And she has figured out how to put them on - not quite independent enough to do it for herself everyday, but still rocking her fine motor skills!! She loves talking about and attempting to sign sock. 

Whenever there are socks (hers or mine) left on the stairs (where I leave them when we take them off due to warm temperatures), she crawls to them and carries them upstairs and puts them in a laundry basket or hamper. ALL SOCKS MUST BE PUT AWAY!!

She loves playing outside while Mama mows or plants. Two John Deere trucks, a pail, and a ball are all she needs to be happy for a long while!! 

She also started trying to climb up her slide. This cracks me up! 

Mama was making a silly noise while Meghan was in the tub. She has an adorable giggle and I'm so glad Cole caught it on video.

Like I said earlier, she has been teething ..... not a super exciting clip, but here's what bath time looks like when all she wants to do is chew something. 

Baby Hoosier 2 :: 5 Weeks

This week, Baby is the size of a: sesame seed
Total weight gain/loss: still haven't checked this
Sleep: I'm super tired. I've been taking a 20 minute nap in the afternoon which has been helping. Weird dreams have already started - usually they involve snakes - eww!
Best moment this week: It was fun sharing with family last weekend that baby is on it's way!
Movement: nope
Food cravings: pickles, cold water 
Symptoms: some nausea, tired, bloating (love elastic waist pants!)
Belly Button in or out: in, hopefully for a while!
Milestones: baby's spinal tube is starting to develop and will soon become a brain and spinal cord